What kind of algae do i have and how do I fight it ?

[eke]

Hello guys!
I'm pretty new in pond building and growing koi, but so far i love my pond and my koi's.
Yet i have one concern. There is some kinda algae in my water, and i can't get rid of it.
My pond is pretty small, about 1600-1700 liters. Runing a 2500l/h pump, and a self made bio filter.
Yet the filter doesn't do much of a job, it's running 24hours a day for about a week or a bit more. Here's some specs of the filter (maybe i'v done something wrong building it) >>

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/4272 ... 109org.jpg - that's the bottom layer of the filter.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/4097/c ... 165139.jpg - the middle layer, these are probably the air stones i guess

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/4026 ... 544org.jpg - the last one, a sponge.

The water goes in at top, and goes out at the bottom.

And here's my water problem >>

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/6174 ... 209org.jpg
I searched the net a lot, however was unable to find what kind of algae or water problem i have. The water is also full of tiny particales. I'v also tried using Tetrapond AlgaeRem, but it didn't help, after the usage the water looked like that >>
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/1527/c ... 211826.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/259/c3 ... 035org.jpg

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/1245 ... 804org.jpg

One more thing, at night or at early morning the water is pretty much nice and clear, as the day goes on the water begins to mess up with these organisms.
So if anyone know's that kind of algae do i have, and how should i fight please tell, i would very much apreciate your help.


And just out of intrest, maybe anyone know's what kind of problem did my koi had ? >>

Fortunatly the salt bath helped him and he's doin fine, the fin is almost the same as the other and the red color in it almost disapeared, just out of intrest I would like to know what kind of problem did he had

 

[HARO]

It looks to me like you're having a bout of "New Pond Syndrome". A newly set up filter will take about six weeks to grow a good coating of bacteria to break down the fish wastes (ammonia) into nitrites and then nitrates, which the plants can use as fertilizer. You can add live bacteria cultures to speed things up a little, but you still need to wait it out. The koi was probably suffering from a case of septicemia, usually brought on by poor water conditions, such as are found in ponds with too many fish for the un-cycled filter. John

 

[eke]

Thank you John for your reply. Just read about the septicemia. I hope my fish won't end up dying. It still has a little red mark on the fin, but behaves naturally and looks happy. Eats as usual also. Don't know what should i do to help her out. As for the water quality i'v checked it several times, and all of the time the readings were good, no amonia, and other readings there good as well. I think i don't overstock the pond, I only have six fish at all. 1 goldfish about 3 inches, and 4 koi's, 2 of them 3 inches, and two about 5 inches long. And one trench about 6 or 7 inches long. So I don't think thats too much for the pond to have such amount of fish.
But the question remains, what kind of particles is floating in my water ?? They can be clearly seen by naked eye, and then you take them out of the water they look green,

 

[addy1]

give your pond some time, you could also add a fines type filter to remove some of the debris, quilt batting put in the water flow.
Do you have a lot of stuff on the bottom of your pond? The stuff that pops up when the sun comes up is sometimes related to debris on the bottom of the pond.

 

[HARO]

Algae, like other plants, gives off oxygen as part of its respiration, but only in light. When the sun rises in the morning, these tiny bubbles can get caught in the clumps of algae, causing them to rise to the surface. Overnight the bubbles will be absorbed into the water, and the algae will sink again. That's why a pond will seem nice and clean early in the day, and look slimy later on. John

 

[addy1]

thanks, was always wondering why it did that

 

[whiskey]

hi eke, do you have a skimmer unit in your pond, this would redue the amount of floating debrie , and very simple to set up. Skimmer to filter .....return to pond via waterfall or outlet to pond

 

[Waterbug]

I assume the stuff floating on the surface is dead and dying algae. It breaks up when stirred? It was single cell algae suspended algae at one time. Over time, maybe a few weeks, it will sink on of sight. Stirring it daily would speed up the process if you like.

A skimmer is the easiest removal method, if you have one.

It can be netted out with a fine net.

You can also dip a bucket so it just breaks the surface and surface tension will pull the stuff into the bucket. Same way a skimmer works. But this takes forever.

Vacuuming the bottom can help reduce the length of the problem. It's kind of a cycle. The algae start to form colonies (clumps) as protection against the sun's UV rays. After a while the colonies start to die (individual cells in the clump) and they sink to the bottom. As the dead cells decompose gas in the clump cause them to float to the surface. The gas is released after a few days and the clump returns to the bottom. More gas forms and the cycle repeats until the clump is completely decomposed. So vacuuming can get you ahead of the game, reducing the amount of stuff in the cycle. The stuff on the surface appears to be the same stuff day after day but is actually new stuff coming up from the bottom.

However, just stirring the bottom can speed up the decomposition and shorten the time you see stuff on the surface. Just like turning a composite pile.

Once completely decomposed the clumps start to fall apart and appear suspended in the water column as ting flecks of pale brown/gray bits the size of ground pepper. These will stay in the water column for years. This stuff can very effectively be removed with a fabric filter or any good mechanical filter. I think the fabric is best for this stuff because it's 100% effective, easy, cheap. 2 - 3 days and the water is clear.